


[Oldfic] Three Days

by TheFanficMaster



Series: Old fanfics [40]
Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-15 06:15:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8045485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFanficMaster/pseuds/TheFanficMaster
Summary: [Oldfic] Three of the worst days of Liam's life.





	[Oldfic] Three Days

It was immediately apparent to anyone that knew him that something was wrong. Liam Lunettes didn't have a lot of friends, but he did have quite a few acquaintances around Pandora and he'd been around enough for his coworkers to learn enough about him to know when to stay away. And this was one of those times.

As such, nobody bothered to so much as speak to him when he returned to work one day, eyes shadowed with an emotion they'd never seen before, shoulders tense and eyebrows furrowed with frustration. But that was okay because he seemed hell bent on ignoring them too. He drifted past them in the halls without so much as a glance or a hello.

Liam sighed as he reached his office door, absently trying to shift his stack of papers to the other elbow so he could open the door. When this did nothing except for nearly make him drop the documents, Liam gave up and kicked the door harshly open. It banged against the opposite wall and a few of the people down the hall jumped at the unexpected sound, but Liam just wasn't paying attention enough to care.

Grumbling to himself, he hurriedly dropped the documents on his desk and slammed the door shut, probably scaring a few more unfortunate people that happened to be in the same vicinity. Feeling more stressed than he remembered feeling in ages, he sighed heavily and sank down into his chair, resting his forehead against his hands—the throbbing in his temple only seemed to grow worse.

Liam had never really minded his job much, but he could honestly say that work was the last place he wanted to be at the moment. He would much rather be at Rainsworth, pacing the halls with everyone else or having tea with Sharon…

…or standing vigil over _his_ bedside.

Liam took a shaky breath and righted himself, narrowing his tired eyes at the stack of documents taunting him. He just wanted to get all his work done so that he could return to them. He couldn't believe that he'd been forced to come in on such a horrible night…

_His face paled considerably as the door burst open suddenly and Oz came running in, looking more exhausted than he'd ever seen him. Alice followed after him, appearing rather grumpy._

_But that wasn't where his attention was._

_Sharon, who'd been talking to him before, streaked past him._

" _Break!"_

" _Xerxes," He breathed silently to himself, running to join her at Gilbert's side as they slowly slid the unconscious albino off the other man's back. Gilbert straightened up and cracked his neck, sighing once more as he looked down at them. Sharon was cradling Break's head in her hands, whispering his name to herself as she eased him into her lap._

" _This is my fault," Gilbert spoke suddenly, startling him. "It's because of me that Break…"_

_Oz, who'd already led Alice into one of the rooms to rest, chose that moment to appear again. "Gil, aren't you coming?"_

_Gil looked like he wanted to charge from the room that very instant actually, but he hesitated. Liam realized that Gilbert had every intention of carrying Break upstairs._

" _It's all right," Liam spoke, trying not to choke on his words, "We'll take care of Xerxes."_

_The man looked like he wanted to complain, but Oz—that interesting child—smiled at Liam knowingly and practically dragged Gil out of the room, ignoring the man's half attempted protests._

_Liam gently lifted his best friend into his arms, trying not to wonder how many times he would hold him like this, unconscious and injured, before everything was over._

Resisting the urge to clean his glasses, Liam reached out with shaky hands and took the first page off the pile. The words seemed to blend together under his worried gaze.

He took a deep breath and settled down for a night of paperwork.

…

It wasn't until late the next morning when he was finally able to return to the Rainsworth mansion. He'd been up all night doing paperwork and then afterward he'd gone to run an errand for his master Rufus, who'd been rather reluctant to give Liam up for a few days, but had caved in eventually after his servant's persistent silence.

Sharon greeted him quietly with an offer of tea and Liam realized immediately from the small bags under her eyes that she hadn't slept either.

"How's Xerxes?"

"He still hasn't woken up yet. I was with him all night…" Sharon responded, her voice barely above a whisper. Liam couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes, so he concentrated on her shaky hands instead as they cradled the near empty tea cup. He vaguely wondered if that was the only thing keeping her awake.

Liam settled down with his own cup and tried to calm his racing nerves. It had after all, been only one night. It would've been foolish to assume that Xerxes would recover from such an exertion so quickly. He may make himself out to be invincible, but Liam was one of the few people that knew Xerxes was still human. And it was becoming more apparent with every day that went by.

Liam remembered a time when it had been Xerxes carrying him around, ignoring his shouting and the fists pounding against his back as he walked around the Rainsworth mansion with Liam suspended on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The man had been so different back then, so much more withdrawn, but at the same time brimming with life.

And that life was very quickly withering away.

Liam hadn't even realized that he'd fallen out of his chair until he recognized Sharon's face swimming in his vision, calling out to him with worried eyes. His chest was throbbing painfully and Liam realized that he'd probably passed out for a few seconds due to exhaustion and anxiety—it wouldn't be the first time.

But Sharon looked like she was about to cry.

Afterward Sharon helped him upstairs and into bed, disregarding his weak protests. He'd given in when she yelled at him for not taking care of himself, retorting that she had enough to worry about with Xerxes running around and getting hurt all the time.

He passed out for a while after that. In fact, by the time he awoke, it was already dark outside. After freshening himself up a bit (he felt like he hadn't washed his face in ages), Liam finally made his way down the corridor to the older man's room.

The door creaked slightly as it opened and Liam flinched a bit, before realizing that Xerxes hadn't moved an inch at the sound. He nearly winced again when he realized that a part of him had been hoping for one red eye to glare at him from the other end of the room, a snarky voice snapping at him for disturbing his sleep.

He slowly made his way over to the bedside, swallowing down the painful feeling in his chest as the dim lighting from the hallway illuminated the form of the sleeping man beneath the sheets. Even though he was out cold, the man's face still seemed tired and withdrawn, as if the darkness was revealing his true age that would never be etched into his skin.

Liam nervously leaned over the sleeping man's face, shaking off the thought that if Xerxes had been healthy, if he'd just been sleeping, then surely Liam would have been attacked by then. Xerxes was no heavy sleeper—such probably came from his profession, first as a knight and then a criminal hiding for his life with the threat of execution over his head. It was truly no surprise that Xerxes had a tendency to wake at the slightest sound.

His heart sank when the albino didn't move at all, even when Liam reached out to cradle the sleeping man's chilled face in his hands. Despite the cold feeling to his skin, he could vaguely make out the slight sheen of sweat that covered him all over and realized that he could feel the heat practically radiating off the other man.

"He's feverish…" He mumbled to himself, eyebrows furrowed with anxiety. What he wouldn't give to go back to those times, back when Xerxes was merely a mystery to him, someone to keep him and Sharon busy while Shelly and Cheryl busied themselves with important matters. But Xerxes was more than that now and so there would be no good to come from grieving over it.

Sighing once more, Liam pulled away and covered his friend's sleeping form better with the sheets, realizing that there was a bowl of water and a rag sitting at Break's bedside; obviously Sharon had been here earlier—his fever was probably fluctuating.

Resigning to his fate, Liam set out to change the water—it was going to be a long night after all.

…

Liam was scolded profusely when he was discovered by Sharon the next morning, head tucked at an uncomfortable angle in his arm as he slept on and off in the old armchair beside Break's bed. His gaze had immediately wandered to the man in question and Liam realized when he saw the rag still sitting on Break's forehead where he left it, that he must've drifted off to sleep sometime during the night.

His stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly and Liam prepared himself for the extra scolding that was sure to come, but Sharon only sent him a saddened look, one that he hated to see on her and one that he was seeing more and more often as she grew up. After checking on Xerxes and finding his fever thankfully broken, they both headed downstairs to the kitchens where Liam managed to choke down a piece of bread and a cup of tea.

He attempted to keep himself busy for a few hours after that. First, he dropped by the library to grab a book. He felt a bit jittery and was half tempted to drop by Pandora and collect some paperwork to occupy himself, but knew that Sharon would be disappointed if she caught him pushing himself again and decided to stick with the book.

He ran into Oz and Alice on the way to his room and managed a shaky smile before continuing down the hall toward his goal.

Alice huffed as she stared after him with narrowed eyes and crossed arms. "Hmph, what's with him?"

Oz smiled reassuringly before patting her shoulder to calm her and steering her back toward their original destination. "It's all right, Alice. I'm sure Mister Liam's just worried. It was nothing you did."

"Heh, whatever. I don't care."

"That's so cold, Alice~!"

…

The book, as it turned out, failed to distract him for very long. By mid afternoon, he was back at his friend's bedside. He'd given up all sense of formality and had opted to discard his usual attire for one of his white, collared shirts and one of his more worn pair of pants. Even still, the room felt stuffy and hot when he entered. He quickly cracked the window open before settling down for a silent vigil next to Break's bed with the book in his hands—he was only on the thirtieth page.

The book failed to interest him after a while, however. The main character reminded him too much of Xerxes, always going off on his own to accomplish things and coming out worse for the wear. With a sigh, Liam shut the book with frustration and wondered when Xerxes had become so important to him. It hadn't really been something that he acknowledged outright; it just happened. He couldn't remember when it started and he knew it would never stop.

"Damn it, Xerxes," Liam murmured as he let the book fall to the ground, sinking back in the chair and allowing his eyes to drift toward the unconscious man again. "Why do you always do this to me?"

As he expected, the other man failed to answer him.

Liam sunk deeper into the chair, realizing that his stomach was beginning to feel slightly ill again. It was probably from a mixture of nervousness and unease. Normally he was able to handle difficult situations with at least a mask of calmness, but whenever it came to Xerxes it all seemed to fly right out the window.

Not liking the direction his thoughts were taking, Liam decided to take a walk. He completely forgot about the book still sitting on the floor by the chair.

…

The next day Liam actually returned to work. Not because anyone asked him to, but because he needed something to occupy his mind. Xerxes would be just fine.

… _Just fine._

Liam sighed with frustration after nearly running into one of his fellow Pandora members in the hallway. _'Damn it, this is ridiculous…but I can't help but worry when I see him like that…when is he going to wake up?'_

Liam wasn't a very religious man, but that didn't stop him from sending a few silent prayers to the heavens as he went about his day. He managed to get about half of his accumulated work done, but eventually was forced to retire for the night.

The next day, Xerxes woke up.

…

Xerxes listened to Liam's receding footsteps as he stomped down the hallway, likely working himself into a frustrated huff. Honestly, he hadn't expected Liam to be so firm, but then again he really had grown up when Xerxes wasn't looking, hadn't he?

He stretched and slipped off the bed, fully intending on making his way to the bathroom when his foot brushed something cold on the floor. Intrigued, he reached down and retrieved what appeared to be some sort of rectangular shaped blob. After tracing it with his fingertips, it was clear that it was a book.

There was no doubt as to who had been reading it.

' _You really do surprise me, Liam.'_ Xerxes hummed softly to himself, setting the book on his nightstand for later blackmail use. It wouldn't do for Liam to be neglecting his work, after all.


End file.
